Ethical, Distinctive, Results Based Marketing For America's Top Doctors

Why Boomer Women and Porsches Are Critical to Your Practice

Yesterday evening I was driving home from the horse barn — it was about 60 degrees, with perfect blue skies and a huge orange sun starting to sink beneath the tree line. As I came up over a rise, I saw one of my most favorite cars heading toward me — a shiny red Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet. The $250,000 car looked slightly out of place as it roared down the unpaved country road and, clearly, the driver wasn’t someone who cared about getting mud on such a car — just having a fantastic time hugging the S-curves of the road and giving the machine a good workout. As the car neared, I glanced over to see who was behind the wheel. Who would you expect to see? For me I was expecting to see a hot, young, somewhat reckless 30-something-year-old behind the wheel, or perhaps a very well-groomed 40- or 50-something-year-old man (who might be making the second chapter of his life much more exciting than the first). It turns out the only thing I was right about was the possible “second chapter” analogy. Behind the wheel was someone I can only affectionately describe as a “glamorous grandma” — likely in her late 60s or early 70s. Her perfectly coiffed light brown hair barely moved in the breeze created from the convertible, and her oversized designer sunglasses made her look like the perfect mix of Jackie O. and Betty White. Maybe she was newly divorced? A widow? Or had just remarried? Maybe she was the matriarch of some multi-million dollar enterprise. Whatever her personal circumstances, this woman was clearly not someone who was into “aging gracefully” (if there is such a thing?) No, she was too busy shattering stereotypes and very likely making up lost time!

Let’s call her Gloria.

In every city in America there are hundreds and thousands of Glorias, and they have more money to spend than any other generation in history. Women over the age of 50 in America have a combined net worth of $19 trillion. $19trillion!!! That’s more than the entire United States GDP, to put it in context. These women have money and they’re not afraid to spend it. They just need a good reason.

And that’s where the strength of your marketing becomes so critical. You won’t win Gloria’s trust by looking and sounding just the same as every other doctor in cosmetic medicine.

Gloria, and women like her, are your ideal patients. But just how well do you know these extremely affluent, 50+-year-old women?

Here are some of the most telling stats about Boomers, both male and female (keeping in mind that Boomers are about one-third of the US population). Boomers are:

41% of Facebook users

48% of Twitter users

53% of Pinterest users

Added to that, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is Baby Boomer women!

3 extremely important things you need to know about the 50+ woman:

1) She’s a “Digital Diva”…

There are over 30 million women over the age of fifty online everyday, and they’re the fastest growing demographic. A quarter of them shop online once a day and 20% of them are self-professed “digital divas” — they are extremely comfortable on the internet. Of significant interest is that they are enormous referrers, which is why they’re even more valuable to your practice, with 92% of them passing information about special offers along to others.

2) She’s Social…

Social networking is the second most common online activity among women 50 and above. It’s more common for women over 50 than it is for men over 50. In fact, about three-quarters of adult women in the US use Facebook, compared to two-thirds of adult men. 42% of online adult women use Pinterest, compared to 13% of online men. For both Twitter and Instagram, the number of online adults over 50 has significantly increased from last year. Women are also more likely to use social media several times a day, outpacing men by 30% to 26%. And women are more likely to interact with brands on social media as well. Some 53% of adult women access offers on social media, compared to 36% of men.

3) …And the Internet is Usually the Best Way to Reach Her (But Not Always)

While women over the age of 50 are the fastest growing demographic of online users, there are still significant numbers of women who are not so internet savvy. They find the internet a bit overwhelming and still prefer to buy their books as paperbacks rather than a download for their iPad or Kindle. While your digital marketing can be an excellent way to reach many of these women, don’t ignore the more traditional types of marketing, like a well-written direct mail campaign or a magazine editorial. Women in this age group are voracious readers — they will read everything you send them (as long as it’s interesting, entertaining and above all — authentic.) They can spy template-style marketing a mile off. Don’t insult them by using this in your business.

As you’d expect, the number of women who have cosmetic procedures far outpaces the number of men (about 9:1). You might not be surprised, as well, that age 51+ patients constitute 32% of surgical and 43% of non-surgical procedures. You might very well be surprised, however, at how little of your marketing is actually directed toward women like Gloria: spirited, savvy, affluent older women who want to look as beautiful and vivacious as they feel! Tailoring your marketing to appeal directly to these “glamorous grandmas” will instantly make you and your practice stand out from your cookie-cutter competition!